The Tale of Mally Biddle Read Online Free

momentarily rested on Princes Avona who still fidgeted in Cayla’s arms. “I will do all I can to help put your mind at ease.” With a curt nod, he went out the door, closing it softly behind him.
    Cayla stood still, eyes fixed on the newly closed door, for quite some time until Princess Avona suddenly grabbed hold of one of her locks of hair and yanked. Gently scolding, Cayla returned the princess to her crib, but her mind was only partly on the giggling baby. The other part was wondering if Salir Romore would try to find out if Alice had been framed.
    ***
    “Cayla, you’ve been inside for far too long,” Nanette snapped irritably. “Go outside—”
    “I’ve been outside!” Cayla retorted indignantly.
    “ To the orchard ,” Nanette scoffed, hands on hips, rolling her eyes sarcastically. “Wow, Cayla, I’m so impressed.”
    “All right, all right,” Cayla grunted as Nanette beamed triu mphantly, “but someone has to watch the princess and she still has to be fed and—”
    “—and don’t worry,” Nanette interjected. She placed her arm around Cayla’s shoulders.
    “We can’t be gone for very long!” Cayla continued. “I can’t—”
    “Cayla,” Nanette said with force, letting go of her shoulders and glaring at her. “We are going to the Lone Candle— ah, ah, ah !” She waved a hand briskly to stop Cayla from interrupting. “And we are going to have a nice, long dinner. I’ll be back here at seven and we can be off.”
    She smiled pleasantly, gave the princess a peck on the for ehead, and left to find Kiora Locke, an older servant who often helped Cayla with Princess Avona.
    At five till seven, Nanette entered the Princess’s Chamber, o bviously still pleased with herself for getting Cayla out of the castle, closely followed by Kiora.
    “I’ve just fed her,” Cayla said with the attitude of a fussy mother hen, “so she’ll probably go to sleep. If she wakes up and starts crying—”
    “Cayla, Kiora has done this before,” said Nanette, amused, “and we’ll only be gone for a few hours. Not two months.”
    “Well, you never can tell!” snapped Cayla, snatching her cloak off the back of a chair, kissing her charge gently and hurrying from the room. Kiora and Nanette shared slightly exasperated yet amused smiles before Nanette closed the door and followed Cayla down the corridor.
    Cayla and Nanette stepped out into the crisp night and Cayla was pleased to find that there was no wind. Bright lamps illuminated the wide gravel road that led to the main gate. Cayla and Nanette nodded silently to the guard before continuing down a cobblestone road. The hems of their skirts and cloaks swished heavily around their ankles, dampening from small pools of water between the uneven stones. The road gleamed yellow from the lines of flickering lamps.
    The Lone Candle was by far the most popular inn in Bosc, the capital of Lenzar. It was a cheerful hole-in-the-wall run by a rosy-cheeked man and his rosy-cheeked wife. The food and drink was some of the best for miles and traveling musicians provided a co ntinual foot-tapping jig. Cayla and Nanette stopped at the Lone Candle’s brightly lit windows, sparkling merrily with raindrops. The inn’s sign, that of a squat candle with lumpy ribbons of wax dripping sluggishly down its sides onto a cracked, wooden table, creaked in a sudden cold breeze.
    Nanette opened the heavy wooden door and they flinched slightly as the battering ram of music and talk issuing from the crowded room barreled over them. Cayla and Nanette entered and with difficulty squeezed through the throng of people standing around the thumping musicians in the corner by the door and weaved between tables to one at the far end of the room. They shed their long, wet cloaks—the large fireplace in the stone wall kept the inn comfortably toasty.
    “Well I’ll be!” rang a loud, clear voice.
    Olive Dunker, the rosy complexioned co-owner of the Lone Candle had squeezed through the wooden